The Great Gospel of John
Volume 4
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi (cont.)
- Chapter 73 -
Cognitive faculty and indulgent intention in the human being.
Says Zorel: "Ah, in this way you can speak to me, alright; since this really sounded humanely, and I will do everything possible, to do, what you as a person, not as a judge, will tell me, dear friend! Now I know myself precisely and my inner life core seems not be the worst; but my outside is entirely bad! If it would be possible to completely rid myself of this flesh and its bad soul attachments and to surround the inner life core with a better flesh mass, then I would be a very rare person; but with this the current constitution of my body nothing can be done! Of course I'm not such a scoundrel as I was; but my flesh can never be trusted. Nevertheless, it is strange that my will never accompanied all those my so bad looking deeds! I have always been drawn to them like by coincidence; from what I actually wanted, exactly the opposite happened! How is this possible?"
2
Says Johannes: "Yes behold, the will of a person is twofold: the one will is where the recognition of the truth always has a somewhat weak hauling- or guiding rope; the other will, however, is, where the sensuous world with its joyous smelling demands also has a hauling rope, which by all kinds of habits has become quite strong and powerful. If the world shows you a pleasant bite together with the possibility to obtain it, then the strong rope starts to strongly pull at the will cluster of the heart; even if at the same time the lesser strong haul- and guide rope of the truth recognition begins to stir, it is of little or no use, because the strong has always carried victory over the weak.
3
The will that should be effective, must act with serious determination and not be afraid of anything. With the most stoic indifference he must be able to laugh off all the advantages of the world and even at the cost of his bodily life he must follow the bright path of truth. Only then has the usually weak recognition will become strong and mighty and has made the purely worldly emotional- and pleasure will completely subservient. Finally itself will also completely transform into the light of the recognition will, and so man has finally become united in himself, which is of the greatest essential importance for the inner perfection of the immortal human being.
4
Because if you in your thoughts and in yourself cannot agree with yourself, how can you then say: 'I have recognized the truth in its depth and fullness!, - but in yourself you are still in complete disagreement and therefore in yourself you are nothing then a pure lie?! But the lie is in contrast to the truth nothing else like the thickest night in comparison to the brightest day. In such a night there is no light, and man in himself a lie, cannot recognize the bright truth, and therefore with all in themself highly splintered worldly persons the haul- and guide rope of recognition will has become so weak, that it at the slightest opposite pull of the worldly pleasure will, is thrown overboard and thereby defeated.
5
If with some people the worldly pleasure will has defeated and crushed the recognition will forever, so that thereby also a kind of unity of darkness occurs in the inner man, man has become dead in the spirit and is thereby condemned in himself and can in all eternity not get to the light anymore, except through the fire of his coarse matter, ignited by the pressure of desires. But the matter of the soul is many times more stubborn as this of the body, and it requires quite a powerful fire, to consume and destroy all the soul-matter.
6
Since such a soul will not allow such an exceedingly painful purification to happen to her for the sake of love for the truth or the light, but instead will out of its old pleasure- and gloomy lust for power try to avoid it, as a Proteus endeavours to withdraw from the catch, it is a person, who in this world has become completely united in his night of life, and is therefore virtually lost forever.
7
Only the person who, by his energetic clear recognition will has completely defeated the worldly pleasure will, and has thereby in himself become unified in the light and in all truth and as such also in life itself. But for that, as I earlier have indicated to you, it requires a truly stoic self-denial, - but of course not that of your haughty Diogenes, who thought he was more and higher as a of gold shining king Alexander, but a humble self-denial like Henoch, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If you can do this, you will be helped for life and forever; but if you can't do that, and not out of your own strength of truth recognition, then it is over with you, and you cannot be helped on the one side nor the other. But I am of the opinion, that you will be able to achieve this; since you do not have a shortage of insight and recognition. What does your inner reason say to this?"